Good Advice
by BkWurm1
Summary: Chlark! Future Clark goes back in time to convince his younger self he can't allow Chloe to be just his best friend. Written for the 2016 Secret Chlark exchange. Set at beginning of season 6


**For:Secret Chlark 2016 Phillydragonldy**

 **Prompt** : Future Clark goes back in time to convince his younger self he can't allow Chloe to be just his best friend

 **Word Count** : 2653

 **Rating:** General

 **Good Advice**

"You're going to regret it."

Clark quickly turned around, looking for the voice. Was it an acoustic trick from some television on too loud or was someone really there? He could have sworn the alley had been empty, but he'd been distracted after leaving Chloe at the Daily Planet to go off with Jimmy "James" Olsen, her man-child admirer, to scrounge for vending machine dinner. That's not how he expected his reunion with Chloe to go.

At first everything was great. He stopped Zod, checked in with his mom who confirmed Chloe was at the Planet and filled him in on what had happened while he'd been trapped in the Phantom Zone. The worldwide power blackout that they were calling "Dark Thursday" left a lot of damage around town. Recovery would be slow, but the world would recover. He'd been around to check up on everyone else, leaving Chloe for last. He hadn't planned on going anywhere else once he got to Chloe. And now he didn't know what he was supposed to do.

They'd shared an epic goodbye. A soul shattering kiss as the world fell apart that somehow left him feeling whole in a way he couldn't remember feeling. He'd been friends with Chloe for a long time; sure, there was the Spring Formal when they were freshmen, the unforgettable cave parasite/redk make out sessions, or when Chloe got drugged by Kryptonite Gatorade. And lately he'd have to have been blind not to notice the curves on her. Plus, there was no one he trusted or depended on more than Chloe, but he hadn't really, seriously thought about them that way, not before the kiss. And now, it was all he could think about.

That and Jimmy "James" Olsen.

Bright eyes? He was calling Chloe cutesy nicknames already? Clark had seen the sparkly flash in Chloe's eyes years ago. It was his flash, his sparkle way before the photographer showed up. And before Jimmy interrupted them, Chloe's eyes had lit up just for him. Her whole face had.

When he'd come through the basement doors of the Daily Planet and saw Chloe across the busy news floor, it was like his powers kicked in and the world slowed down. She'd raced to meet him and that hug…if seeing her had slowed down time, that hug had sped everything up. He hadn't wanted to let her go, but everything was going to change and halfway through it, yeah, he'd freaked out just a little. That's the only reason he could think why he'd just stood there stupidly agreeing that their kiss hadn't meant anything.

And then Jimmy was there, making her smile and Chloe had the best smiles. She didn't do it often enough. Did he really have the right to get in the way of someone that could make her smile? But that kiss…that kiss that would change everything. She had to feel it too. Jimmy wouldn't last. That puppy would bore Chloe to death. Unless she liked that he was boring? Maybe between Zod and Brainiac she was tired of dealing with his insane life. But that kiss. She'd come around. It was just too soon, that's all. He'd wait, Jimmy would slip out of the picture, and then he could let Chloe know what he was feeling and they could face the changes together, like everything else sort of scary they'd faced.

"You are going to be too late."

That voice again. Clark still didn't see anyone. He used his x-ray vision to scan behind the dumpsters. Nothing. It was a windowless alley, so no fire escapes either.

"Up here," the voice said. Clark frowned. There was something about the voice that sounded off, sort of familiar, but wrong. Still, he followed the voice's directions and looked up. He blinked and then rubbed his eyes. The alley was dark, but not dark enough to explain why the man looked like he was hovering in mid-air. Or why he was wearing his face. While wearing pajamas and a cape? Nice colors though. It had to be a trick. Zod was gone, but Brainiac had survived before when they'd thought they'd defeated him. And the Kryptonian computer could take on anyone's shape or appearance. Was that plan B? Was Brainiac going to try to pretend to be him?

Panic clutched his chest. He couldn't let him get close to either Chloe or his mom again. The only thing that slowed Brainiac down before was a massive jolt of electricity. Clark spotted the nearby transformer station and the conduit running to it. He blurred into action, grabbing the line and vaulting into air as the crackle of power surged through his body. He slammed into the floating figure, knocking them both to the ground, but instead of the energy short circuiting Brainiac, the figure, wearing an S on his chest that looked disturbingly similar to the scar Jor-El had once given him, grabbed the conduit from his hands and held it aloft.

"I am not your enemy!"

"Who are you?!"

"I am you, from the future."

Clark scrabbled back away from the costumed man. The man rose and went to the power station and shook his head. "Like there weren't already enough repairs to do."

He held the conduit back in place, picked up a cracked piece of metal and fitted it to the end. Then beams of light shot from his eyes, letting him first make the metal malleable so he could make a crude connector and then reconnecting the wires and welding the end of the conduit back into place.

"That should hold temporarily. The city will upgrade the entire grid soon anyway."

Clark continued to stare, open mouthed at the man that claimed to be him. The heat vision looked right and he was unaffected by the electricity that had coursed through the both of them. For a second, Clark panicked, afraid he'd accidentally transferred away his powers again, but there was no sign of kryptonite anywhere. He checked his x-ray vision. Still there. Cautiously, he stood up. He studied his doppelganger. Older definitely, by at least ten years, though the weary expression in his counterpart's eyes made Clark think he was a lot older.

"I know time travel exists, but how am I supposed to believe you? What could you possibly say to convince me you're me?"

"I wondered the same thing, but there are some things I've never told anyone. Things not important enough or too embarrassing to tell. Like the seventh grade, rhubarb jam incident. A dozen jam jars broken and licked clean that Dolly, the cow, took the blame for. Or the first time I went fishing with Pete, and every time he wasn't looking, I put an old tire or a boot or a can on his line like in the cartoons. Or that the day we met Chloe, you sped to the library to get her favorite book. Or that the night of the Spring Formal, Chloe smelled like vanilla and peaches and later the same night, Lana smelled like burnt hair. Or that a half hour ago, you applied Green Apple Chap Stick because you expected to be kissing Chloe."

Clark felt his cheeks heat up, but he shook his head. "Maybe only I know any of that now, but I could have told anyone all of that in the future."

"So you'll believe I'm from the future, but not that I'm you." The man in the unitard cringed. "You asked for it. Would you have told anyone about… coming in your pants - twice - when Chloe was infected with the cave parasite? Or that between riding around in the back seat of Pete's car and putting on a show at the Talon, you blurred home and changed so no one would know? If you still have doubts, there was that dream we had about Lex, the turkey baster and...,"

Clark quickly interrupted. "You've convinced me." There is nothing that anyone could do to make him share either of those stories with anyone. "I believe you…me…us." He shook his head, mortified and astounded. "How can you be here? The consequences of time travel are too steep."

"Normally that's true, which is why two and a half years from now, when given an object that makes travel through time easily possible, you will come to decide to destroy it. And even when given a replacement, you shall refuse to use it, no matter the consequences, but the universe is a far more complicated place than I can express. For every rule, there is an exception. I was given a gift by a being…a being beyond normal space and time. A consequence free chance to change one vital thing in my life. There will be no unexpected deaths. No lives ruined."

Clark studied his older self's face. He had no reason to doubt him. He nodded. "Ok. What do you need me to do?"

"Go back to the Planet."

He tensed. "Chloe! Is she in danger?"

"No. You are."

"From what?"

A look of resigned sadness passed over his face. "From a making the biggest mistake of your personal life."

"I don't understand." Was this about the kiss? About Chloe?

"Yes, you do. You think you have time. You don't. You fear your feelings will pass. They won't. But the window for telling her is short and when it closes, you'll try to convince yourself they have. There will be years of denials and distractions in between before you realize it and by then, choices will have been made that can't be undone. Paths taken that cannot be un-walked. A time will come when you selfishly think distance is the best gift you can give, but it will be a curse to you both until you undo it, and by then, the damage will have been done." Another flash of that same deep weariness passed over his features. "Fear of being alone puts you on the path to the worst kind of loneness, the kind that comes when you are not alone."

"You're talking in riddles." If scaring him was his intention, it worked.

"Maybe I am, but here in this moment, this is the true turning point of your life. You can go hide in the dark loft, moping about James Olsen or you can take true control of your destiny."

"Chloe's my destiny?"

"True destiny is what you make it. When I left Chloe at the Planet with Jimmy Olsen to raid the vending machines, I unwittingly gave up the chance to choose mine. Until now. This is my chance, our chance, to stop being a pawn of history."

"But Jimmy is what Chloe wants. The kiss…it didn't mean anything to her."

"Do you really believe that?"

"I…I don't know. It's what she said."

"No. It's not. She said she didn't expect anything. And I lived up to her expectation. Having super hearing doesn't guarantee the ability to listen."

"Jimmy can give her the normal life I can't."

"Don't do that. Don't disguise insecurities as nobility."

"What if she doesn't trust how I feel?"

"Then give her reason to. Convince her. Fight for the future you want."

"I want Chloe."

"Then don't wait. Go now. Tell her. Make your destiny."

He didn't wait. The sidewalks around the Daily Planet were too public to blatantly use his powers, but if anyone had clocked his run back, they'd have had to update the world record. He pushed through the gilded doors of Metropolis's greatest asset and flew, two at a time, down the stairs leading to the basement.

"Chloe."

He said her name from across the busy basement newsroom and she immediately turned and headed toward him. It was almost like a replay from before, except this time Jimmy "James" Olsen followed on her heels, juggling cans of sparkling juice and a couple bags of Cheez-its.

When Chloe reached him, she stopped short of a hug, but still clutched his arms.

"Clark, what is it? Is something wrong?"

"There's no new problem," he quickly reassured her. "How long are you going to be at work?" Whatever she expected him to ask, that wasn't it.

"Hours. Everything's a mess and we're running at half-staff. At least until 10 I'd say."

"Can you put me work? Whatever needs doing."

Chloe looked bemused. "I'm sure we could use another pair of hands. Is that it? Is that why you came back?"

"No, I came back for this."

He reached for her, uncaring of who was watching, cradling her head in his hands, and kissed her like his world was ending. That's how it would feel if he had to walk away without her tonight. His heart pounded, his senses buzzed. His knees nearly gave out in relief when her arms came up around his neck. She was kissing him back. Somewhere outside of the perfect universe they created, he heard clapping and cheers.

When they broke their kiss, Chloe wore the same sweetly vulnerable expression she'd worn last time. Leaving her had been torture. This time, he wasn't going anywhere.

"For the record," he told her, still cradling her face. "I was expecting something. And maybe that scares me a little. I don't have all the answers, but I know when the world was ending, you were my first thought. And it was to you, I was fighting to get back. And it's with you I want to spend every moment and it's you that I…"

Chloe rose to her tiptoes and cut off his speech with an answering kiss. Before it was over, someone in the background was urging everyone to get back to work. Chloe blushed and hid her head against his chest.

"Sorry," Clark told her with a grin stretching his face wide.

She huffed lightly and grinned back up at him.

"No you're not."

He grinned even harder and shook his head. "No I'm not."

Jimmy set the cans of juice and the crackers down on a vacant desk, walked over and extended his hand to Clark. "No hard feelings? You can't blame a guy for trying."

Clark could, but with Chloe still wrapped in his arms, he could be magnanimous.

Jimmy then turned to Chloe and shrugged. "Like I said before, you get what you get when you don't call back."

Chloe groaned and then laughed as Jimmy walked away.

"What was that about?"

"Believe me, you don't want to know."

* * *

High on the Daily Planet's roof top, Superman lingered, hidden in the shadows. Using his X-ray vision, he stared down into the basement. He'd return to his regular time soon; he'd just wanted a hint of what was to come. What he got was so much more.

The moment they kissed, an explosion of new memories played like movies in his mind. The aching ball of loneliness he'd carried most his life dissolved. She was now interwoven into every part of his life. They fought and faced many of the same battles, struggled with many of the same problems, but now there was a lightness about his heart. Every sorrow, fear, or rage was tempered by the love they shared.

Having Chloe at his side brought out the best in him whether as a reporter for the Daily Planet (Sullivan and Kent - a three time Pulitzer Prize winning duo); a hero (Darkseid was defeated when Superman flew and gave the world a reason to believe in miracles, but first Chloe made him believe); a husband (she made him wait until after they graduated with honors from Met U) or a father. His mind stuttered as a trio of faces flashed through, growing and changing with the years. A father? How was that even possible? Chloe's laughing, smiling face echoed through everything. Tears came to his eyes. With Chloe, anything was possible.

He ached to go home and kiss and hold her in his arms. And that was all it took to trigger his return. When he arrived, he wouldn't remember there ever being a world where Clark Kent hadn't discovered the women of his dreams right by his side, disguised as his best friend. His younger self wouldn't even remember what made him change his mind and go back to the Planet, but that was ok; the real question had always been how he could have ever left.

 ** _The End_**

 **Author's Note:** Just a heads up. I also did another Chlark story for the Gift Exchange but that one is too explicit for so look for " **Glass Houses" over on Archive of Our Own.** I'm Bkwurm1 there as well. Thanks!


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